LMC student Jenna Dolezan to reflect on journey at commencement

Jenna Dolezan has been selected as the student speaker for Lake Michigan College’s 72nd annual commencement exercise being held at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 5 at The Mendel Center Mainstage on the Benton Harbor campus.

Dolezan, a Benton Harbor native and 2017 St. Joseph High School graduate will receive an Associate in Business Administration.

She chose Lake Michigan College her senior year of high school after her mom, Linda, was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer.

"She's my best friend," Dolezan said. "We do everything together, so I decided to stay home to go to college."

The first-generation college student added that attending Lake Michigan College turned out to be, "the best decision I could have ever made."

Dolezan got involved in the campus community from the start. She joined the Student Senate in her second week and attended any leadership training workshop available to her. She is one of the founding members of the Women in Business Club, which works to inspire, promote and empower all students, no matter their gender or major. The club has since hosted two professional panel events and regularly meets with accomplished area women with diverse experiences.

Dolezan credits LMC and Marketing Professor and Women in Business Club advisor Kristi Lafrenz, in particular, for helping her hone her organizational and leadership skills, especially overcoming an admitted penchant for procrastination.

After graduation, she will spend the summer in Orlando, Fla., in a marketing internship with Give Kids The World Village, an 84-acre, nonprofit resort that provides weeklong, cost-free vacations to children with critical illnesses and their families.

In the fall, she will attend Grand Valley State University to pursue a bachelor's degree in marketing en route to her goal of establishing a career in sports marketing management.

As Dolezan walks across the stage to receive her degree, her mom will be cheering her on.

"She never graduated from college," Dolezan said, "and to see me be able to do that, I don't think she could be any prouder of me."

The student commencement speaker is selected each year by a panel of LMC faculty and staff members from among those graduates who enter the annual commencement speaker competition.